Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it.

I have never seen either angels or goddesses, so I am not interested in painting them.

I have never seen an angel. Show me an angel, and I'll paint one.

I hope to live all my life for my art, without abandoning my principles one iota, without . . . having painted as much as you can cover with your hand, to please somebody or in order to sell the picture more easily.

Painting is the representation of visible forms. The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal.

France is the only nation in which astoundingly small numbers of civilized patrons reside.

When I am no longer controversial, I will no longer be important